Re: Question on Charity

[NM925jan@aol.com]

1.  I do not favor a privatization system which eliminates the current
system's redistributive benefits formula (which gives relatively
higher benefits to lower-income people)? 

	-- Social security should be a safety net for people who have worked 
all their lives, but who have not had the means to invest in the stock market 
and real estate.  As hard as it seems for some of the "haves" in this 
country, not everyone is able to save and invest.  That doesn't mean they are 
evil or lazy, and it certainly doesn't mean they should be punished for 
growing old or infirm.   

2.   Under the present system or some of the proposed alternatives,
 will some people be forced to choose between food, lodging or
 medicine in their daily budgets?

	Yes, I am certain many will have to choose between food, lodging or 
medicine under some of the proposed systems.  My mother worked hard all her 
life (often two full-time jobs simultaneously) to support her two daughters, 
because she was on her own.  She worked as a chef for a university, a clerk 
in retail, and in electronic manufacturing plants.  When she reached 
retirement age, she had no pension, and her social security benefits barely 
paid her housing expenses and food (her home was paid for, but there are 
taxes, repairs, utilities, etc.)  She supplemented her income by doing menial 
jobs (greeters in stores, retail, waitressing) until she died at age 73. Her 
children loved her and as working class people, struggled to support their 
own families, although they helped her as much as possible.  She had friends 
who ate pet food (or only one meal a day) to survive.  Some of these proud 
people would rather starve than resort to "charity."  Social Security, as 
limited as it is, at least gave them the dignity of an income!

3. Will charitable organizations be able to fill the gap between
 the needs of the poorest sector of the population and the benefits
 provided by government programs?  Should this be the solution to
 this problem?

	--Charitable donations have been declining, at least in our area.  I 
think people who have worked hard and supported themselves and their families 
would not be excited about becoming charity cases just because they grew 
older.

	-- I think the government owes its citizens the dignity of freedom 
from poverty.  Most people who collect have fought in wars, or had husbands 
or sons who fought in wars, paid taxes, provided valuable services (and 
raising children is a valuable service) to their community and nation when 
they were able bodied.  If we turn them over to the "charity" of their 
neighbors, we might as well put them on ice floes to die!